Media 2070 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 81
The activism of Black journalists and civil-rights groups
has played a critical role in challenging white news
outlets’ racism and policies that have promoted media
consolidation at the expense of the Black community.
Consolidated media power has curtailed Black people’s
ability to create and control the distribution of our own
narratives. Instead, our stories are too often told by other
people who get it wrong — which has caused us great
harm.
Due to structural racism in the media, Black people have
had to organize campaigns to pressure media outlets to
stop promoting racism and other forms of hate on their
platforms. One of the first examples of Black media
activism — during the early days of commercial radio
— took place in 1931. The Pittsburgh Courier launched a
campaign that called on the Federal Radio Commission —
a precursor to the FCC — to kick the racist Amos ’n Andy
program off the air.1
It was perhaps the first such campaign in our nation’s
history that called on regulators to take action against a
racist media program.
Half of the nation’s radio-listening audience tuned into
the nightly minstrel show. President Herbert Hoover
invited the white actors, who played the title characters, to
perform at the White House. The Courier collected more
than 700,000 signatures on its petition. But in 1932, the
FRC refused to take action.2
The Courier’s effort to engage and organize its readers to
hold media companies accountable in many ways was a
precursor to the online organizing taking place in the 21st
century by advocacy groups like Color Of Change and
Presente.org. Both organizations have used their online
platforms to hold powerful media figures accountable.
Presente.org’s campaign against the racist and antiimmigrant comments of CNN host Lou Dobbs led to
his abrupt departure.3 And Color Of Change launched
a campaign that called on advertisers to boycott Glenn
Beck’s Fox News show in 2009 after he called Obama a
racist who had “a deep-seated hatred for white people.”4
The campaign played a critical role in Beck’s departure
from the network.
The group also organized an advertisers’ boycott against
Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly in 2015 after he falsely claimed
that he had been attacked while covering the 1992 Los
Angeles uprising that followed the Rodney King verdict.
When sexual-harassment allegations surfaced against
O’Reilly in 2017, Color Of Change was well positioned to
pressure companies to stop advertising on the program.
Other advocacy groups, including CREDO and Ultraviolet,
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